UK intelligence reports wave of purges in Russian defence industry

Over the past week, two corruption cases were brought to court in Russia involving defence officials who appear to not have political protection.

Source: UK Ministry of Defence on X, as reported by European Pravda

Details: According to the UK Defence Intelligence update on Ukraine from 28 July, Russian media reported that the head of the Russian Defence Ministry’s Military Construction Company, Andrei Belkov, has been arrested on charges of corruption related to procurement activity.

"The Military Construction Company was set up in 2019 specifically to achieve efficiencies with the then Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu praising the ‘special internal and external audit regime’ that the company would bring to Defence. In reality it is likely the company has been used to extract rents by corrupt officials," the Defence Intelligence report said.

On 23 July 2024, the former director of the Zvezda-Strela tactical missile plant was sentenced to prison for embezzlement and price inflation by a court in Rostov-on-Don.

"Corruption is endemic in the Russian defence industry. In 2007, an audit commissioned by the then Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov revealed that 70% of Ministry of Defence budgetary resources were used for purposes other than those officially designated," according to the UK Defence Intelligence.

Further, according to the intelligence report, the Kremlin tolerates some of the corruption in the defence industry, but "there have been increasing crackdowns on those not sufficiently politically protected since the start of the war in Ukraine".

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